New Axolotl owner advice needed

Hi,

I have recently went to a pet shop and saw this weird looking and funny creature in a small aquarium with about 12-15 newts. The axolotl was missing one leg and his gills were fully eaten so i felt pity on the poor thing and decided to take him home. I had a empty nano aquarium(20l) at home so I thought that would do for the moment. The axolotl is a wild type, about 10cm long and one front leg is slowly starting to regenerate as I can see 3 little claws. The leg seems functional and moving fine, just that it's a lot smaller than the other. Basically I knew a little about axolotls, never kept them before, but always been fascinated with them. So I took the little guy home, placed him in the nano aquarium and immediately started reading more about them. I live in Romania(Europe) and the temperature here is around 39C outside, and around 26C inside with the AC on. So my problem is that I find it extremely hard to keep the water temperature down, so I'm looking for advice. I have a dennerle internal filter with a tube like extension with holes in it that I oriented to shoot the water at the surface to create some waves in order to lower the temps down(at least that's what I thought). So my question to you guys is, what do you do when temps are this high, or what do you recommend I should do. I plan on buying a larger aquarium, I guess that the more water in there the cooler it stays. The little fellow looks fine, eating reptomin if I feed it with the twizer, he doesn't seem to like the food that is not moving. At least I never seen him eat it from the surface or the bottom of the aquarium. He gets interested if I shake it a little in front of his nose, otherwise he doesn't seem interested in it. He is swimming fine, having a little hard time grabbing on objects with his handicap. He is a wild type and I checked him for any sign of disease on the skin and looks alright. He is kinda skinny, I believe the newts were putting up some heavy competition on the food(i'm guessing they were feeding them from time to time). I'm doing daily water changes to help with the temperature control but I'm not doing a good job on that. I also put some bottled water in the freezer to see if that works lowering the temp down. So please feel free to add an advice, I'm interested on how you people deal with summer temperature in your tanks.

Thanks in advance

I use computer fans. I have them set up so they can blow against the surface of the water. The only bad thing about it is that it evaporates the water very quickly.

Okay, well, that aquarium is probably too small, so get a longer one, not necasarily deeper but more space!
No gravel, sand is okay as long as it's not calci sand or aquarium sand, most use crazy sand or play sand, thoroughly rinsed, if not, just a bare bottomed tank or VERY LARGE rocks/pebbles.
You could buy a cooler...
Feeding, I don't know exactly what you're feeding him, but they are attracted by movement, so i suggest feeding live foods, most people give earthworms, thoroughly rinsed ( of course ) as they are a good staple diet. And treats like shrimp or mussel...

hope it helps!

Aw, how incredibly caring of you! Pics please!
I have about 6 bottles in the freezer ready for swapping them over as they start to thaw. I also have some laptop coolers with fans in two blowing cold air in and two sucking the hot air out. If you can, move the tank onto the floor, it will be cooler there and will help lower the temperature.

The aquarium I have him in right now it's 25x25x30(Lxlxh)cm, with fine black sand, some patches of plants(cuba) and a ceramic cave for hiding. I was planning on adding some shrimps there but I guess I never got the chance.
Moving the aquarium on the floor is a CAN'T DO, because I have 2 ferrets and a dog running loose around the house .
I plan on buying a custom made aquarium 80x40x40(Lxlxh)cm. I'd rather invest in a external filter and decorations than buying a brand aquarium that is way too expensive at that size. I will take your advice with the coolers and will see if I can make a custom made top.
Will keep on feeding him by hand until I get some live (parasites free) feeders. Pet stores only store frozen food so I guess I'm better of with reptomin, at least for now. I guess I will have to stock my freezer with bottled water then and move my wifes veggies some place else, this will be interesting...
Thank you all for advices, will keep you posted, will also add a few pictures later.

If you got one that big, you could have at least one more axie!

They do like the occasional shrimp!

Here are some pics with the little guy. Sorry for the bad quality, I'm not that good with taking pictures. I measured him and he's 7cm long.
I will go to the local market tomorrow and buy some earthworms from the fishermen there, I hope he will enjoy those better than the reptomin tablets. I brake them in 3 smaller pieces but he just chews a little on it and spits it back out. I'm guessing is a little too hard for him to chew on it.

Aw that poor thing. He's so underweight. Glad you helped him to get out of that hell hole
You can also try bloodworms. My axie sometimes don't want to eat worms but she can't resist a nice chomp of bloodworms.

I'm not sure how often they fed them, but anyhow being in a small tank with a dozen fire belly newts must have been serious competition over food.
I'll see what I can find tomorrow but I doubt I will find bloodworms... Any idea if fly larva is good for him? I have 2 frogs that I feed flies and I have fly larva in the fridge.
The fishermen at the local market have all kinds of wiggly creatures used as bait perhaps I find more than just earthworms..

I wasn't really sure about it but I've read a couple of times that things like maggots are pretty hard to digest for axies. So I won't risk it.
Earthworms are the best for now. Let's hope s/he loves them

Morrison said:

I wasn't really sure about it but I've read a couple of times that things like maggots are pretty hard to digest for axies.

Click to expand...

I'm not saying that's wrong, but I haven't read that anywhere + would like someone with more experience to help Marian with that point, please :happy: I thought most larvae were good for axolotls (though some, like waxworms, can be too fatty too feed as a regular part of an axolotls diet - then again, maybe that's what he needs at the moment?!) If you are thinking of MEALWORMS (?) which are often confused with maggots, then they're not great because of the hard exoskeleton (which clogs up your axolotl + the filter), but people do use the freshly moulted ones with no problems. I might be getting my Mods muddled up, but I think Kaysie uses them?

I've seen a webpage somewhere here, that lists foods in order of benefits, but I can't seem to find it now Perhaps someone else can post a link to it (or, if I find it later, I'll add it)

Ha! Typical! I've found it now - I was looking in the wrong places
Caudata Culture Articles - Food Items for Captive Caudates

In the book Scott, Peter W., "Axolotls", 1981, T.F.H. Publications. " Axolotls: Care and Breeding in Captivity"

he does mention maggots as a good food source for more juvinile axolotls.

Mealworms arent good due to not being able to digest well chichid < -- dunno if thats spelt right hehe



my axolotls love bloodworm cubes but dont like blackworm cubes much. Will most likely be buying some maggots and earthworms soon, but i will do some further reading on the maggots.

You could try putting in an ice pack? like one of the medical ones people use for their sports injuries because they will hold the cold longer...? The other thing you could do is wrap the bottom of the tank in news paper because it will act as an insulator for the cold in the tank - that's how my dad used to keep my iced drinks cold when I was still in primary school

Oh! and if you have a garden, I just learnt from a thread of mine that you can take a cardboard box outside and simply dampen it and leave it for a day. when you come back there should be free worms!

I hope things work out for you and your little guy - he looks really sweet. What have you named him?

PS. I LOVE FERRETS!! Yay!

Thank you all for the kind replies. I've look on this page Caudata Culture Articles - Food Items for Captive Caudates and it says live grubs are excellent food for them. That's exactly what I have in the fridge, but mine are red and smell like fish. I used to have white ones too but I noticed they take longer to transform into flies so switched on red. The fly is big and green and the frogs go nuts over them. I have a friend that had a clawed african once and he fed her with one fly larva, the poor thing died 3 days later and it looked like the maggot pierced her stomach because she was barely able to swim straight after. You could also see the maggot inside in a very weird unnatural position. After the frog died he cut her open and removed the maggot which was in perfect shape so I assume he couldn't digest it properly. African clawed frogs don't have teeth for chewing, so they swallow everything that fits in their mouth.
Unfortunately I don't have a garden so I'll have to buy them at least until I go out and dig for them myself.
At the moment I'm using ice bottles to lower the temperature down, but I notice that the temps change way too sudden and I'm afraid not to get him sick from the big temperature fluctuations.
I haven't named him/her yet, being this skinny I can see a big lump between his legs, so I assume he is a boy, although from what I read you can't really sex them at this size yet.
I already rearranged the furniture for the new tank and talked to someone for a custom made top with 4 pc coolers. This will also keep the ferrets away since mine are crazy about water.

Finally home! I bought a lot of earthworms and already fed him 2 small ones after I cleaned them really well. He(assuming it's a he) loves the earthworms, actually chewing on the second one as I write this. How many should I feed him per day? Should I also feed him reptomin occasionally or stick to earthworms for now?

At his state of health, I would feed him small meals twice a day. It depends on the size of the worms and the size of the little guy. If the worms are small (the length of his head, and thin like spaghetti), feed him 2 or 3 at a time. If they're big, fat worms (like a pencil), feed him one chunk of worm that are about the length of his head, twice a day.

Reptomin isn't all that nutritional for salamanders. It's designed for turtles, which are omnivorous, rather than axolotls, which are strictly carnivores. Until he gains some weight, I wouldn't give him anything that he can't digest. It's just wasted energy to try and digest and expel it.

PS: Those pictures nearly bring me to tears. I hope you go back and have some choice words with that pet shop. To let any animal get to this state of health, whether it's a salamander, a snake, a bird, fish, cockroaches... it's atrocious. I really wish you the best of luck.

Got it! I fed him 2 thin earthworms(spaghetti like, as you said). Tried to give him a 3rd one but he just sniffed him and ignored it. I will try later in the evening.

Will keep feeding him earthworms at your advice until he gets more body weight. It's incredible how he sucks the food inside his mouth like a vacuum cleaner. It's a very interesting thing to watch.

The petshop is actually a wing for a hypermarket called Hornbach(Some of you might have heard of them). The guy in charge there said they brought 3 of them after someone ordered them. The order took about 2 months and meanwhile the guy changed his mind about buying them so they got stuck with 3 axolotls. The other 2 died, this was the last one. Pet shops in Romania are terrible. I have a friend that used to work at a pet shop for 3 month, he got fired because he was giving too many advices to customers and most of them changed their mind after hearing how many things a pet needs... i guess basic animal care knowledge was bad for business. So you can't really blame the hired staff there, but instead the people that hire them without any sort of training.
One day I was looking for a crayfish and I asked the lady there if they have any crayfish for sale, she kept showing me all the shrimps they have...

Sounds like you're on the right track. I would try feeding him every 12 hours or so, so maybe morning and evening.

Ah, I was thinking about mealworms. But totally different, sorry